"There are better things to be doing at this hour of the day...like contemplating your second martini."

I had to agree with the old man sitting behind me at last night's Newport Harbor Commission meeting.

If you are really curious about what I was doing at a Harbor Commission meeting, take a look at Tuesday's OC Register.

In case you cannot wait for the meeting minutes to be posted online, the end of sailing in Newport Harbor does not appear to be upon us.

Interesting note about sailors in Newport Beach (at least sailors who attend Harbor Commission meetings): They are all 20 to 30 (or more) years older than me...

Valentine's Day Advice

--Given to my (male) coworkers after one of them reported he could not make the Wednesday (2/13) Poker Game (because he has to make Valentine's Days plans):

I realize some of you have not been married as long as me, so I shall impart a little wisdom:

1) You need not purchase roses ahead of time. Many of your female colleagues will be receiving flowers at work. Some will be unhappy with their flowers, and will be begging for you to remove them from their desks...also, nobody is going to miss one or two roses. Just take one from each lady, and you'll have an exceptionally nice bouquet.

2) If you must take your wife/girlfriend somewhere expensive to impress her on Valentine's Day, you are likely setting the bar too high the rest of the year. Fortunately, it is not too late to fix things for this Thursday: Just make sure the missus does not eat anything until Valentine's Day...she'll be hungry enough to eat at Arby's.

3) Get an ecard. Nothing says "I love you" like a Valentine's day ecard...especially if it's one of those talking Valentine's day ecards that says: "I love you".

Crazy Christians

In most states, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is also a former pastor, won the broad support of voters who described themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians.

I would like to retract that last post. Pharmacists are boring.

Did I mention Scarlett Johansson called me yesterday, urging me to vote for Barak Obama? I don't know how much money she donated to the campaign, but Jennifer Aniston has given the $2300 maximum. Wow, you can almost buy a cheeseburger with that.

53% of California pharmacists prefer Mitt Romney...or at least they prefer to give money to Mitt Romney.

http://www.ocregister.com/article/campaign-finance-donor-1964364-donation-money


I am not running for president this year, so please do not bother voting for me.

I don't know if it's worth $2900, but it's pretty #@!%&* good.



If I want to increase site traffic, I should probably have some tags in here about Screaming Eagle, and how this probably is not a very good year for Screaming Eagle...if it were a good year, they would be charging a lot of money, or something. I suppose it could be a good Screaming Eagle vintage and a very bad cheeseburger. That does not sound good at all. I am pretty sure that I would enjoy a good cheeseburger and a bad bottle of Screaming Eagle more than a good bottle of Screaming Eagle and a bad cheeseburger. Do I have to eat the cheeseburger if it's bad?

Anyway, cheeseburgers and expensive wine are my favorite food...Nico, can we go to the Crow Bar?

Anybody want to take a weekend trip to wine country?

Alternative titles were:
1) How to get a reservation at the French Laundry
2) French Laundry Reservations
3) Free dinner at the French Laundry
4) French Laundry Reservation for $100 per person
5) Buy me dinner at the French Laundry
6) Expensive dinner with naked French chicks

Okay, I confess: I made up all these alternative titles in an effort to increase traffic to the blog. Probably, I will only succeed at decreasing my chances of getting a future reservation at the French Laundry.

NAME YOUR EPIC BAND, ALBUM, AND HIT SONG.

Alternative title was: More things that beat working. (This was actually a lot of work, anybody want to write a program that does these steps automatically?)

I'm supposed to post a link to mi amigo Tate's page.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result as a comment in this post. Also, pass it along in your own journal because it's more amusing that way.

5. http://www.livejournal.com/random.bml Use the subtitle of the journal you go to. This will be your #1 hit single from the album. In order to view the subtitle you have to click on the "info" link, and the subtitle will be the italicized text under the title (bold text), which is under the user name. If the subtitle is in a different language and you don't care to use it, or if its not there, you just click the link again and you'll find one eventually.

Here's what I came up with:

Band Name: Los Angeles Kings
Album Name: We Know Truth
Hit Song: Or life is there to miss


* The full name of my band is "2006-07 Los Angeles Kings Season", but that did not fit on the album cover.
** The quote that the album name is taken from was: "We know truth, not only by reason, but by heart", however, "reason, but by heart" did not make a good name for our first album.
***Microsoft Paint is the only photo editing software I have at work.
**** Los Angeles Kings is actively seeking a bass player, a lead singer, and a drum machine.

Newport Beach Restaurant Week II

Sunday (Last Night): Beachcomber Cafe. In spite of its location, this restaurant is surprisingly non-touristy...at least for dinner in January. Food is decent, atmosphere (complete with blankets to counteract those cold ocean breezes) cannot be beat. I already reviewed the place, sort of.

Monday: Blue Coral. The Blue Coral menu was scaring me a little (crab on a steak?), so we went to Palm Terrace (inside the Island [formerly the Four Seasons] Hotel). Macaroni and cheese at expensive restaurants is much better than macaroni and cheese from a box.

Tuesday: Roy's. Is Roy's ever disappointing?

Wednesday: Fleming's Trivia: Fleming is the "F" in "PF Chang's." More Trivia: In Chino, they don't even have a PF Chang's.
Flemings was replaced at the last minute by Rothschild's. We ate in their wine cellar (that giant table in the picture was broken up into several smaller tables). Our waiter, an opera singer (is that aspiring opera singer if you're working as a waiter?), ended the evening by serenading the room with Sinatra.

Thursday: Bayside (My favorite restaurant in Newport).

I've been having a little fun playing the futures market (I shorted Fred Thompson at $26 yesterday, and made a killing):